Editorial

Debt burden of Pakistan, internal and external, during the last 10 years has been increasing at an alarming rate — courtesy fiscal mismanagement, incompetence and sheer callousness of the rulers. According to latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), total debts/liabilities as on June 30, 2016 reached Rs22.459 trillion as against Rs19.846 […]

Lahore – Falling remittances at the time of surging non-oil imports and continued depressed demand environment in the country could complicate balance of payments and forex reserves, hence putting pressures on local currency. According to experts, Pakistan’s trade deficit was recorded at $2.1 billion in July 2016, up 18.1 percent YoY, but down 26.2 percent […]

Life of small and medium size banks in Pakistan is getting tougher, under the rules of minimum rates on interest bearing deposits in days of thinning spreads. The world is moving in a direction, where the mantra of ‘too big to fail’ is losing steam as big banks create systematic risk to economies and can […]

The “Limited Liability Partnership Bill, 2016” has been taken up by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance. It was presented in the assembly in the first week of this month.The Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is the mode of establishing small scale partnerships under a new form of business structure. The new structure will remove […]

The Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA) and the FBR appear to have reached a deadlock over the issue of allowing the latter access to account-holders’ central database. Banks fear a breach of security if this access is allowed, while the FBR’s move comes as a part of its attempt to go after tax evaders. Given the […]

IT was generally believed that the declining policy rate might affect the profitability of the banking sector. However, the State Bank of Pakistan’s banking performance review for the first half of the year (1HCY15) belies all such fears, as the sector’s pre-tax profits surged 113pc to Rs171bn from Rs80bn in the first quarter (1QCY15). On […]

ISLAMABAD: In its desperate efforts to get the amended Anti-money Laundering (AML) Bill passed from the Senate, the government on Friday agreed to exclude many proposed tax offences from the list of fiscal crimes that will be dealt under the AML law. The Ministry of Finance unveiled its revised list of predicate offences in a meeting […]

KARACHI: The World Bank Group’s Mission on Trade and Competitiveness, led by operation officer Amjad Bashir, visited the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry to seek the business community’s input on the overall investment climate of Sindh, particularly the industrial zones in Karachi. According to a statement issued by the KCCI, Bashir, while highlighting the purpose […]

As in most debates in Pakistan there are sharply polarised views on the regulation and deregulation of private-sector activities. Some advocate re­gulation by the state as an effective tool to curb the market’s excesses. Others think markets should be left to themselves and the state should have few regulations. The argument put forward by the […]

IT`S been a long cold winter, but as the old song goes: here comes the sun. Here in Washington D.C. a record winter is finally retreating, having given us record snowstorms and even a `polar vortex`, a climatic anomaly that we only see once in a generation. Finally the sun has made an appearance for […]